Programme Evaluation 2014-15

Recommendations

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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that formal and informal volunteering contributed the equivalent of £23.9bn to the UK’s economic output in 2013 13 . It used a ‘replacement cost’ approach, based on median hourly wages for similar activities in a paid environment. A parallel study prepared for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Cabinet Office in the same year, while noting a long-term decline in levels of volunteering, calculated a national total of approximately £70bn for the wellbeing value of such activities to the volunteers and beneficiaries 14 . These forms of analysis have however attracted scepticism 15 , due not only to the seemingly inflated figures generated, but also, problems in their use as a systematic basis for project evaluation, choosing between different courses of future action and their applicability to a range of real-world situations. This is all the more evident in areas such as North West England where wages are low, exclusion from the employment market is widespread and volunteering is more likely to be born of social and economic necessity than a leisure pursuit of choice. Neither do such methodologies tie in with an organisation like F4C, which sees the value of people and places in more rounded, organic ways. The examples set out on page 18 illustrate the range of ways in which volunteers have helped F4C to deliver its mission, not just by completing individual projects, but bringing positive, long-term benefits to the environment and disadvantaged communities across the North West. As we shall see later, the positive, long term benefits to the volunteers themselves are an intrinsic part of this added value. This is particularly true of asylum seekers and members of the region’s Muslim communities, whose growing contributions as volunteers proved crucial during 2014-15. Photo 7: Rubbish being cleared from the river close to Spa Road, Bolton, during a community clean up undertaken as part of the Environment Agency-sponsored Flood Awareness Project 13 Office for National Statistics (2013) Household Satellite Accounts – Valuing Voluntary Activity in the UK Available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_345918.pdf 14 Fujiwara, D, Oroyemi, P and McKinnon E (2013) Wellbeing and Civil Society Estimating the value of volunteering using subjective wellbeing data Department of Work and Pensions and Cabinet Office Available at: http://www.vanl.org.uk/images/downloads/volunteering/Estimating-the-value-ofvolunteering.pdf This was calculated on hypothetical estimates by ‘frequent, formal volunteers’ of the financial compensation they would require for the loss of satisfaction in their lives if they stopped volunteering: it suggested an average sum of £13,500 per person. The motivation for this study, however, would appear to relate more to the DWP’s desire to establish a research-based justification for its controversial mandatory Workfare regime. 15 Hill, M (2014) ‘It’s the Economic Value, Stupid: But is Volunteering Really Worth £100bn to the UK?’ NCVO Blogs Available at: http://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2014/06/26/its-the-economic-value-stupidbut-is-volunteering-really-worth-100bn-to-the-uk/ 15
• 80 asylum seekers supported by Asylum Link Merseyside (ALM) provided voluntary work for the 3 strands of the Target Wellbeing project: food and cooking, gardening and textiles. • 4 Muslim asylum seekers prepared a harvest celebration meal for 40 Anglican parishioners at St Christopher’s Church, Norris Green. • 19 asylum seeker volunteers contributed significantly to the textile recycling element of Target Wellbeing. This included the design and creation of a fashionable dress, in a traditional African style, entirely from recycled materials, to celebrate the 30 th birthday of a group member. The MRWA funded the making of a video to document this activity. Another output of this work was the manufacture of a Tree of Life banner. • A major input by members of Muslim communities in Lancashire and Greater Manchester to the Environment Agency-sponsored and National Flood Forum-supported Flood Awareness project. • 23 mosques, 4 area-based Councils of Mosques and 2 Islamic community organisations across Bolton, Bury, Oldham and Rochdale were actively engaged in communicating aspects of environmental care, water management, flood prevention and waste disposal in ways compatible with Islamic values and teachings. • They organised and attended a total of 78 local community meetings and distributed advice leaflets and questionnaires to residents: this was entirely in addition to F4C’s own meetings and activities in the neighbourhoods concerned. • The volunteers facilitated and participated in days of action to remove several tonnes of rubbish from canals and rivers across the area 16 17 18 . Finally, the Muslim community volunteers organised and provided food for celebratory meals, following the clean-ups. The Bolton Council of Mosques commissioned a video 19 to celebrate the project. • A wide range of volunteers from local schools and churches were involved in the design and creation of the network of gardens in the Heaths Marian Trail, St Helens; the activities connected with the schools and ecumenical pilgrimages; and the Trail’s ongoing maintenance. • The St Vincent de Paul Society (Vincentians) provided F4C with a volunteer worker on the basis of 3 days (21 hours) per week during this period. As it turned out, Paul provided strategic project support, commitment and vision of a quality far outstripping all expectations, ensuring the success of project delivery and strengthening long-term partnerships. (c) Other forms of added value: These are both qualitative and quantitative, and no less tangible than added income and volunteering hours. They include longer-term benefits to environmental sustainability and to individuals and communities, expressed in terms of –for example - enhanced life skills, respect for oneself and others, social integration, a closer sense of partnership, a stronger/restored social fabric and new pathways towards employability and employment. Central to the design and delivery of F4C’s work is bringing together people from diverse – often conflicting - backgrounds to join in activities on a human level, sharing resources, skills, experiences and ideas. Because this is based around the catalyst of faith, with the aim of building bridges not barriers, people who would otherwise be unlikely to meet each other co-operate freely to achieve meaningful goals. The end result of engaging with this distinctive culture regularly extends beyond the locations and timescales of the projects themselves. Participants forge long term friendships and partnerships – individually and organisationally. As with volunteer hours, it would not be possible to present an exhaustive schedule of how these forms of added value have taken root following F4C activities during 2014-15. The following examples offer an indication of the range, scale and sustainability of the change that F4C has achieved: 16 Rochdale Online (2015) ‘Wardleworth Clean-up’ 09.03.15 Available at: http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/newsheadlines/94630/wardleworth-clean-up 17 Bolton News (2015) ‘Flooding risk eased after more than six tonnes of rubbish cleared from river plagued by flytipping’ 15.03.15 Available at: http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/11857302.Flooding_risk_eased_after_more_than_six_tonnes_of_rubbish_cleared_from_river_plagued_by_flyt ipping/ 18 Bury Times (2015) ‘Successful Bury clean-up highlights flooding risk caused by fly tipping and littering’ 30.03.15 Available at: http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/11908389.Successful_Bury_clean_up_highlights_flooding_risk_caused_by_fly_tipping_and_littering/?ref=mr 19 The Council of Mosques’ YouTube video, BoCM and the Big Clean-up, is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geEZfJjDKRw It complements F4C’s own video of the project, Flood Risk Awareness: Environment Agency project with Faiths4Change, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OO0Pjc-emM 16
Page 1 and 2: Programme Evaluation 2014 - 15
Page 3 and 4: Contents “The most important prin
Page 5 and 6: Chart 1: Percentage of Project Area
Page 7 and 8: Running Costs In addition to the co
Page 9 and 10: Although every local authority area
Page 11 and 12: 4. Nature and Extent of Partnership
Page 13 and 14: element of this was to work with fa
Page 15: 6. Outputs and Outcomes “A lack o
Page 19 and 20: 7. Partners’ Perspectives “True
Page 21 and 22: skills and shared responsibility. P
Page 23 and 24: • F4C has successfully maintained
Page 25: Photo 12: Asylum Link Merseyside la

Programme Evaluation 2014-15

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